In an unusual twist, the ruling People’s Democratic Party, which used to be the favourite destination of politicians jumping ships at the Senate, yesterday lost three of its members to the rank of the opposition.

Two of the defecting senators, Adego Eferakeya from Delta State and Joel Danlami from Taraba State moved to the growing Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), while the third, Umar Argungu from Kebbi State joined the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) whose membership is expanding, especially in the northern part of the country. Wednesday’s exodus brings the number of senators who have left the PDP to four in the last one month, a record high in the history of the Senate.

In a letter to the Senate President, David Mark, the three lawmakers blamed their decision to resign their membership of the PDP on the divisions within the party in their various states, and the likelihood of their political ambitions being truncated if they remained in such a party.

This movement brings the number of ACN senators in the senate to seven and raised the population of senators in the opposition to 14, although this is hardly enough to alter the direction of any bill even if they all voted in a plenary.

The senators had concluded the ceremonies for their defections in their home states, yet the formal change of seats by the senators at the floor of the Senate was filled with emotions and revealed the turmoil within the ruling party.

As Mr Mark read out their letters of resignation from the party, one after the other, their former PDP colleagues struggled to either keep them back or, failing that, make them forfeit their seats.

Some of the lawmakers lamented the inability of the PDP to resolve its internal disputes and called on the senate president to intervene.

“I wish to draw the attention of the (PDP) national headquarters to do something because the rate at which the crossing away from the party is becoming alarming,” Jubril Aminu, a ranking senator and party stalwart from Adamawa State said.

All the PDP senators who had left for the opposition blamed the inability of the party to resolve internal crisis as their reason for leaving. Still, the opposition had, over the last one year, lost eight senators to the PDP. They include Uche Chukwumerije of Abia State, whom the Senate President described as a “big catch.”

Trouble in the party

Mr Danlami who was the first to cross the aisle on Wednesday, is considered a big fish in his home state of Taraba. He intends to contest the governorship election in his state in 2011 against the incumbent, and he described his former party as a party in tatters in his state. The Taraba PDP has long being engulfed in crises, leading to series of protests to the party headquarters in Abuja and court cases in the state.

Mr Eferakeya, a professor of pharmacology, is teaming up with Ovie Omo- Agege, a former PDP gubernatorial candidate in Delta State who led about 10,000 members of the party into the ACN a fortnight ago. He also blamed the crises rocking the party in Delta State for his decision to dump the PDP. Although he is not considered a political heavy weight in his state, Mr. Eferakeya is believed to control a large bloc of followers.

Like Ehigie Uzamere, (Edo State) who was the first PDP senator to decamp to ACN, Mr.Argungu is also jumping over to the CPC perhaps because of the growing popularity of the party in his state.

“I don’t understand how you will leave the known to the unknown,” Mr Mark said, while accepting his letter of defection. Mr. Argungu explained that PDP was dead in his state.

Within the coming weeks, more senators in the ranks of PDP are expected to join the opposition as their chances of getting tickets for the 2011 elections grow slim. Despite the worries expressed by the PDP senators, party officials claim the defections will not affect the national strength of the party.

Unconstitutional move

The 1999 constitution prohibits the carpet crossing of serving legislators in section 68 sub-section 1 (g) where it stated that unless there is a merger of political parties or division or even factions in a political party, no serving legislator may cross over to another party.

The constitution, in the same section, also provides that if any legislator contravenes the provisions, he or she will be required to give up his seat in the chamber. Perhaps in order to circumvent this, all the senators defecting claimed there was trouble within the party in their states.

Mr Mark, in accepting the defections, said he trusted the integrity of the defecting senators. This was the same line he had used when there was mass movement of opposition senators into the PDP side in the Senate.

In the past, each time this crossing of the carpet took place in the Senate chamber, Olorunnimbe Mamora (AC Lagos State), who is the deputy minority leader of the Senate always objected, saying the PDP was benefitting from illegality. But Mr. Mamora’s voice was always too weak to stop the process, though yesterday he did not raise any objections to the defections.

During the first amendment to the 1999 constitution, the lawmakers attempted to amend this section but their efforts were thwarted by legislators at the state houses of assemblies who refused to vote for the deletion of the section.


http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/Metro/Politics/5641037-146/pdp_loses_senators_to_opposition_.csp

There's nothing new about the senators' defection.It is all about the struggle 2 retain their seats in 2011.They will return to the PDP immediately in the coming election.Nigerian politicians are the same and can hardly be trusted.If they greet u goodmorning,pls check if it is not already evening time.

So what happens to party ideology?

Finally PDP is loosing its stronghold and crumbling, but still we still don't know the reals reasons why these senators quit PDP.


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